Characteristics of patients with ADHD in psychiatric and pediatric ADHD clinics

This study explores whether the child psychiatry ADHD clinic and the pediatric ADHD clinic serve different population of patients regarding the patient characteristics, severity of ADHD symptoms and comorbid disorders, thereby testing the efficacy of a triage system set up to direct patients referred for Attention Deficit Disorder symptoms to the appropriate clinics. Charts of 163 children and adolescents treated in two clinical settings were analyzed with regard to demographic characteristics, family structure, DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD, and a variety of comorbid characteristics assessed through the Child Symptom Inventory-4 or Adolescent Symptom Inventory-4. Patients in the child psychiatry ADHD clinic were older and consequently have more years of schooling. Child psychiatry ADHD clinic had a greater number of patients with combined subtype of ADHD than the pediatric ADHD clinic. Likewise, the child psychiatry clinic had a higher number of patients with comorbid disorders. The child psychiatry ADHD clinic received patients who were older and had more comorbid psychiatric disorders. The study suggests that there exists an appropriate division of labour in that a third line specialty psychiatry clinic receives the more difficult complex cases.